Why is my housetrained dog peeing on the floor!?

Why is my housetrained dog peeing on the floor!?

My girlfriend and I picked up a dog from a local rescue. He had been in the shelter since Dec. We adopted him in mid April. He is a little over a year old. He's a bull terrier/ Aussie cattle dog mix. He's an absolute sweetheart. He plays, he snuggles, he's smart and is learning his tricks well, even if sometimes slow.
We dealt with some separation issues at first. Some chewing, a few incidents of urine marking. He's calmed down though! For the most part.
Our schedules are different. The only time he's left alone in the house is between 10-5 on Monday, and 8-5 Wed & Thurs. The rest of the time, he has our full attention. He goes places with us. He gets long walks, and plenty of love.
The problem is, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, he finds it necessary to pee all over our entry way. Mondays he's usually fine, but Wed & Thurs, almost always, he completely covers a 4' x 4' tile floor. No little puddles for him. He likes to paint the floor. He goes and pees a river before we leave, his water is taken up, and we leave. I'm really at a loss. I've trained and showed several dogs in obedience, Rally-O, agility, and confirmation. This is baffling me though... Why is he doing this, what can I do!? I don't want to crate him.
He is house trained. He knows when we're here to go to the stairs and signal to go out. No problem. And he never does this on Mondays. Only Wednesdays or Thursdays. Sometimes it's both, sometimes it's none, sometimes it's one or the other. But only Wed or Thurs. It's almost a pattern, but not quite.
Any ideas???

Why don't you want to crate him? If he's eliminating indoors, he's not housetrained even if he seems to be most of the time. You've had him for only a few weeks. I don't know why he's doing it on the days he has to hold it for 9 hours instead of the 7 hour days but I wouldn't let him have the option any more. If you are absolutely opposed to crating him, hire a dog walker to come and let him out mid day or make arrangements for you or your gf to come home and let him out during the day.

100% everything Jackie said -- a dog who consistently has accidents is *not* really housetrained.

But as an aside -- teaching a dog to be comfortable in a crate (i.e., you can't just suddenly stick them in a crate and walk away for hours) is beneficial HUGELY to the dog.

A crate-trained dog is a welcome guest in most homes and many many motels. There will likely come a time when you **must** travel with the dog and I tell you, it is monumentally easier if the dog is comfortable in a crate.

Also -- in a dog's lifetime it's likely there will be a time when he has to be at the vet and a dog who is comfortable in a crate will have an easier time than a dog completely unfamiliar and unused to crating getting put in a crate at the vet when they already don't feel well.

Dogs **are** den animals. We think we're doing them his huge favor by leaving them "free" (and that's a human concept, by the way), when in truth to a dog a crate is simply a place protected *from* the world rather than a place "locked away" from it. We perceive it as some kind of jail. to them, a den is just a safe place to sleep where they are safe from attackers. That's *their* inbred history.

I'd go back to Housetraining 101. To me this pup doesn't sound potty trained. Also, regarding the crate issue my Tootsie has never been crate trained, but she definitely goes in one at the groomers and the vets. Its a good tool to have in your pocket. Good luck!

Honestly... a crate is going to be your best friend in this situation. The crate is NOT a bad thing. All of my dogs are crate trained. Casey and Dahlia are crated when no one is home... they LOVE their crates - go right in when I say 'let's go to bed'. Dahlia (almost 2) is not house trained, nor is she trust worthy alone in the house. To ease my frustration, and to keep my house clean, she must be crated.

Guys, I really appreciate all your help. He is somewhat crate trained, but not particularly well. The people at the rescue we got him from had him in a crate, and he behaved well, as he does as long as people are in the room, but the day we tried to crate him, as soon as we left he began the escape process, and succeeded. after bloodying his nose, and literally moving the crate across the room, and getting only one of the four latches undone. I still don't know exactly how he managed to get out... But anywho. I picked up some books at the library with crate training methods, so, wish me luck. Are there any resources you guys recommend? I've never had to crate train a dog before.

Also, just as a PS. Yesterday, he was an angel. The apartment was in the exact state we left it. He makes no sense.... :/

Guys, I really appreciate all your help. He is somewhat crate trained, but not particularly well. The people at the rescue we got him from had him in a crate, and he behaved well, as he does as long as people are in the room, but the day we tried to crate him, as soon as we left he began the escape process, and succeeded. after bloodying his nose, and literally moving the crate across the room, and getting only one of the four latches undone. I still don't know exactly how he managed to get out... But anywho. I picked up some books at the library with crate training methods, so, wish me luck. Are there any resources you guys recommend? I've never had to crate train a dog before.

Also, just as a PS. Yesterday, he was an angel. The apartment was in the exact state we left it. He makes no sense.... :/

It sounds as though he may be anxious when you are gone or just plain claustrophobic. Not sure that crating a dog who bloodies himself to escape is such a good idea in the short term. If you crate train this dog you must acclimate him very, very gradually and make the crate a great place for him to be, not actually shutting the door on him for some time. If it were me, I would feed him in his crate, at first with the door open, then with the door closed while you are there, and as soon as he's done eating, open it. Gradually wait a second, then seconds, then a minute, then minutes, before you let him out after his meal. Rinse, repeat - a lot, always getting there to open the crate door *before* he starts any of the escape behaviors. Then start stepping out of the room while he eats and repeat the whole process. Then step outside the door and repeat. You might want to consider trying a Thundershirt for him, and maybe even use a DAP diffuser in the home near where he spends most of his time.

You may want to check out a book by Patricia McConnell called I'll Be Home Soon. I found mine on amazon for a few $. it's WONDERFUL, and sounds like it may be geared towards what you are dealing with.

You haven't had him long... things take time. My aussie didn't fully settle in until we had had him a good 6 months or so. (not the same issues, but he was 'shut down', showed very little emotion, etc.)

You may want to check out a book by Patricia McConnell called I'll Be Home Soon. I found mine on amazon for a few $. it's WONDERFUL, and sounds like it may be geared towards what you are dealing with.

You haven't had him long... things take time. My aussie didn't fully settle in until we had had him a good 6 months or so. (not the same issues, but he was 'shut down', showed very little emotion, etc.)

I agree, and it's not unusual for a rescued dog to take a long time to acclimate. I think Nicole Wilde just authored a new one on SA, too, called "Don't Leave Me." People I've spoken to who have read it thought it was good.

Thanks again guys. I realize trying to crate him will be a long process. His general training is going well. He's quit pulling on his leash. He waits at the door instead of bolting. He sits, lays down, and has started targeting with amazing results. He's starting to really calm down. I knew it would take some acclimatizing on his behalf, I had just never had a dog with such blatant destructive behaviors before. My girlfriend used to have a catahoula who was EXTREMELY destructive, and she ended up rehoming him (She's still in touch with the neighbor she gave him to, an elderly man, who spends ALL his time with the dog, and the dog is MUCH happier, and behaves like an angel.) and so when Scooter started showing these signs she got really nervous (for good reason). So yeah.
Today we spent most of the day with him, and he was happy. We just got home from dinner, and got to actually -witness- an accident. It was like watching a little kid accidentally pee his favorite superman undies. His ears fell, and he looked so sad. He didn't pee much, but he did a little as we were walking up the stairs. We didn't reprimand him or anything, just took him out quickly and cleaned up.I honestly felt bad for him. He just ducked and cowered. I talked sweetly to him as Laura ran him outside. I think he just gets excited and looses control. So, I guess the next task is to figure out what to do about that, to save our floors. At least now I know it might not be out of spite like it seemed to be before (I know spite isn't the right word, marking would be, but as a human, it seems spiteful. "You left me alone. Fine. I'll pee on your floor!" lol) But anywho. I think we'll make it thru this!

I'm so glad to hear he's doing better with his general training. Dogs that urinate in excitement or to show submission are best completely ignored when you first come home. Our dog Gabby dribbles a little urine if she's greeted too enthusiastically by us or even by the other dogs. It's completely unintentional and doesn't happen if all greetings are kept very low key.